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Polar Bears on Thin Ice as Climate Changes

December 27, 2006

GLOBAL WARMING WOES

The Bush administration is to propose listing polar bears as an endangered species. The move recognizes that the bears are under pressure due to global warming.

In former United States Vice President Al Gore's climate change movie "An Inconvenient Truth," an animated polar bear is depicted swimming for its life after the polar ice cap which forms its habitat melts. Now the current US administration is reported to be recognizing that the fate shown in the movie is a real possibility.

US President George W. Bush's administration is proposing to list polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because of warming temperatures in the animal's habitat, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The proposal, described by an Interior Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity, marks the first time the administration has identified climate change as the driving force behind the potential demise of a species, the paper said.

It further quoted the official as saying officials from the US Fish and Wildlife Service have concluded that polar bears could be endangered within 45 years.

Once a species is listed as threatened, the government is barred from doing anything to jeopardize the animal's existence or its habitat. In the case of the polar bear, environmentalists hope to force the government to curb emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide that can contribute to global warming.


The move is in response to fears that global warming will destroy the animal's natural habitat. "We've reviewed all the available data that leads us to believe the sea ice the polar bear depends on has been receding," the Post quoted the official as saying. "Obviously, the sea ice is melting because the temperatures are warmer."

The much-loved giant mammals are estimated to number between 22,000 and 25,000 worldwide. Populations exist in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Norway and Russia.

While their population has been stable in recent years, the bears face threats from global warming, environmental contamination and potential over-hunting.

The Bush administration has consistently rejected the scientific thesis that human activity contributes to global warming and has resisted capping greenhouse gas emissions because of fears it will impact negatively on the US economy.

Labels: global warming polar bears

posted by ... @ 2:04 PM